DOSSIER ON ENVIRONMENT

1. Thermal stations and environment protection
2. The greenhouse effect and “climate altering gases”
3. The ozone depletion and the Montreal Treaty (1987)
4. The Kyoto Protocol (1997)
5.From Kyoto to Johannesburg (1997 – 2002)
6. Conclusions

1. Thermal stations and environmental protection

Every combustion process has a direct influence on the air wholesomeness as it releases gas emissions in the atmosphere which can combine with weather conditions and topographical factors, thus damaging the environment.

The most relevant types of gas emissions that are usually taken into consideration by international directives and scientific or technical studies are the following:

1. nitrogen monoxides (NOx)
2. carbon monoxide (CO) and (CO 2)
3. sulphur monoxide (SOx)
4. volatile organic compounds (VOC)
5. total suspended particles (TSP)
6. lead (Pb)
7. fluorine
8. benzene, benzopyrene, etc.

The first five categories of pollutants also involve thermal stations for civil use.

According to a recent study carried out by the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA), thermal stations producing domestic hot water are responsible for about 35% of the entire polluting emissions, whereas the transport sector is responsible for about 65% of them.

Every combustion process produces carbon dioxide which cannot combine with other atmospheric agents, so it is not directly responsible for damages to people’s health. It is the atmospheric gas that enhances the greenhouse effect and produces a net warming of the earth surface.

Just a few facts:

• From the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased by 5 billion tons per year.
• In the last 100 years the earth temperature has increased by 0.6 °C and the sea level has risen worldwide approximately 30 cm

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2. The greenhouse effect and “climate altering gases”

According to many scientists, the air temperature rise is due to atmospheric pollutant gases contributing to the greenhouse effect (the so called “climate altering gases”).

Climate altering gases are gas substances which have a direct or indirect impact on the atmosphere radioactivity because they let solar radiations enter the earth atmosphere while absorbing earth radiations.

Climate altering gases are for example:

-  carbon dioxide (CO2)

-  nitrogen monoxides (NOx) which have a direct radioactive effect ;

-  methane (CH4)

-  chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), ground level ozone (O3)

The concentration of these polluting gases in the atmosphere, if altered by human activities, has a direct influence on climate change and earth temperature (that’s why they are called “greenhouse gases”)

The greenhouse effect is a warming of the earth’s surface and lower atmosphere due to the presence of climate altering gases in the atmosphere.

Climate altering gases are like a glass window in a greenhouse: they trap infrared radiations, that’s to say the solar heat, which would otherwise disperse in the space by a certain percentage.

The atmosphere let incident solar radiations reach the earth’s surface, whereas thermal radiations coming from the earth – the infrared waves with longer wave length - are less incident.

The greenhouse effect: is it due to natural forces?

According to some eminent scientists, there are other natural factors which can directly influence the climate system: volcanic eruptions, natural fluctuations in the sun’s intensity, changes in ocean currents, the succession of the seasons, etc.

Example:

The Pinatubo volcanic eruption in the Philippines in 1991 produced millions of tons of micrometer-sized droplets of sulfuric acid which were thrown into the stratosphere. These particles eventually spread out over the globe and formed a sort of layer around it. The very small droplets blocked energy coming from the sun. The result was that the earth cooled off a little with about a half degree centigrade (from 14,57 °C in 1990 to 15,41 °C in 1991).

There is still no evidence of a relation between an increase in the earth temperature and the inflow of climate altering gases into the atmosphere.

However, the atmospheric concentration of climate altering gases – like carbon dioxide, CO2 - has been increasing considerably as a result of the combustion process of fossil fuels and deforestation.

Some facts should be taken into consideration:

1)  if some gases can alter the climate system

2)  and if the presence of those gases in the atmosphere is increasing

then the problem should not be underestimated, even if there are other important polluting factors influencing the climate system of our planet.

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 Introduction

The ozone layer in the stratosphere is a natural sun block as it blocks out the sun’s ultraviolet radiations (UV). Without this precious filter, continuous exposure to UV radiations would affect humans, animals and plants, thus leading to health problems and finally to the complete extinction of all living creatures.

In 1985 some scientists found the presence of a hole in the ozone layer. Successive studies confirmed that the ozone layer is depleting.

Other studies have suggested a direct link between the ozone depletion and the increase of chlorine concentration in the atmosphere. According to those studies, the ozone depletion is due to chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and bromine gases, which are commonly released by aerosol bombs and cooling systems.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could be dangerous if they accumulate in the earth’s stratosphere because they can combine with ultraviolet radiations. According to scientists, the chlorine functions as a catalytic agent as it causes the resolution of ozone (O3) into oxygen (O2): a chlorine atom can destroy 100.000 ozone molecules.

The Montreal Treaty

In 1987, enhanced by environmentalists, 35 UN countries decided to sign an International Treaty (the Montreal Protocol) on those substances – like bromine and chlorine - that deplete the ozone layer.

In 1989 the European Community (now the European Union) decided to prohibit CFCs emissions before the end of the Nineties.

Thanks to further pressures by the environmentalists, new proposals have been put forward concerning the elimination of CFCs, thus obliging all European companies to accelerate the substitution of cooling fluids with other ones containing a low ozone depletion potential (ODP).

Thanks to the measures taken after the Montreal Treaty, CFC emissions have fallen down by 87% since 1987. It is estimated that the hole in the ozone layer will close completely by 2040.

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4. The Kyoto Protocol

Introduction

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changes (UN-FCCC) has been approved during the United Nations World Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in June 1992 and has been ratified in Italy in 1994. All Governments and signing Countries are committed to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases causing global climate changes.

The UN-FCCC Convention contains some general principles about the actions that should be taken but does not include detailed information on how they should be carried out and in how much time. It is the “Conference of Parties” which is supposed to put those actions in practice.

4.1   Details of the Kyoto Protocol:

The Kyoto Protocol, which has been approved by the “Conference of the Parties” during the third plenary session held in Kyoto from December 1^st till December 10^th 1997, is an executive act containing some of the most urgent commitments approved during the UN-FCCC Convention.

The measures contained in the Kyoto Protocol involve exclusively developed countries and developing countries in eastern Europe.

The Kyoto Protocol identifies and specifies concrete actions for just a small number of commitments.

However, even if the measures taken so far are partial and limited to certain aspects, the Kyoto Protocol has confirmed that global climate change, world socioeconomic development and sustainable development are of outmost importance for the future of our planet and for our own survival.

4.2   Kyoto’s commitments

The Kyoto Protocol commits all industrialized countries and transition countries in central and eastern Europe to reduce greenhouse anthropogenic emissions by 5% within 2010, and precisely between 2008 and 2012. These so called “greenhouse gases” are the following:

-   carbon dioxide

-   nitrogen monoxides

-   methane

-   hydrofluorocarbons

-   perfluorocarbons

-   sulfur hexafluoride

The first three types of greenhouse gases should be reduced below existing 1990 levels, whereas the other three types of gases (which can damage the ozone layer as well but are the subject of the Montreal Protocol) should be cut below existing 1995 levels.

The 5% target of the Protocol, however, is not the same for every country. European countries are committed to achieve the 8% target, the USA the 7% target and Japan 6%. No reduction but only stabilization is required for Russia, New Zealand and Ukraine.

The following countries can increase their emissions: Norway (till 1%); Australia (till 8%) and Iceland (till 10%).

No kind of limitation is provided for greenhouse emissions in developing countries. As the Rio de Janeiro Conference highlighted in 1992, this commitment could influence or even slow down their socioeconomic development.

It is worth pointing out, however, that the level of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases in developing countries is rising in a considerable way (+25% between 1990 and 1995) in comparison to developed countries (+8% between 1990 and 1995). This means that within 2010 the commitment signed by developed countries will be thwarted and the world greenhouse emissions will reach a +30% level in comparison to 1990 emission levels.

The Kyoto Protocol is therefore a perfect starting point which might turn to be useless if the incoming sessions of the “Conference of the Parties” cannot find convenient solutions which can allow developing countries to pursue their objectives and which can guarantee the fulfillment of UN-FCCC Convention commitments.

Vincenzo Ferrara

(ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment)

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5. From Kyoto to Johannesburg (1997 – 2002)

The Kyoto Protocol was signed by 84 countries in 1997. It aimed at cutting greenhouse emissions in order to reduce the risk of climate changes. Industrialized countries committed themselves to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% within 2008-2012.

The Kyoto Protocol will become effective 90 days after its ratification by at least 55 of those countries that signed the UN-FCCC Convention, provided that at least 55% of the total amount of CO2 emissions in 1990 is to be ascribed to those industrialized or transition countries which have previously signed the Kyoto Protocol.

A pivotal world conference on climate was held in 2000 in The Hague, three years after the signature of the Kyoto Protocol for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 5%. Unfortunately, The Hague Conference collapsed instead of reaching an agreement on operational measures.

On the one hand, European countries urged those nations required to make emissions cuts to make at least half of them at home, focusing on a “cleaner” policy based on alternative energy. As regards the other half, they should take tough action by using the so-called “flexible mechanisms” like reforestation to absorb carbon dioxide, aid to developing countries to build power stations and environment-friendly transportation systems.

On the other hand, the USA and their allies – Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan – want to put into practice their flexible mechanisms. They point out that, if environment pollution is a global, not a local, phenomenon (air currents can disperse CO2 emissions worldwide in a few months), then they are not obliged to limit their emissions if they can buy the right to pollute from developing countries?

The G8 Environment Ministerial Meeting which was held in Trieste (Italy) in March 2001 was the first opportunity to enhance the dialogue between Europe and the United States after the collapse of negotiations in The Hague.

The meeting tried to move the world forward on implementing the Kyoto Protocol. However, an agreement on climate change is still far away.

The Convention on Climate Change held in Bonn in July 2001 did not succeed in reaching an agreement with the United States, the world’s biggest polluter.

The 5.2% Kyoto target was reduced by 1.7/1.8% because of a disagreement between the United States, backed by Canada and Japan, and the European Union.

During the meeting held in Marrakech in November 2001, The United States position was still the same. Canada and Japan, instead, approached a little more towards the European position and they will probably ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The United States are completely left out.

Ten years after the Rio de Janeiro Meeting, the representatives of 200 countries met in Johannesburg at the World Summit on Sustainable Development which has just concluded its proceedings and has approved two documents: the “Johannesburg Political Declaration on Sustainable Development” and the “Plan of Implementation on Sustainable Development”.

The first document includes general principles and commits all signing countries to pursue sustainable development, while the second one contains a list of objectives to reach on energy, environment, health, financial aid, etc. without fixing any deadline or binding target.

The most important result obtained in Johannesburg was a vast consent for the Kyoto Protocol. As a matter of fact, with the adhesion of China and Russia, those countries in favor of a Kyoto ratification reached the 55% threshold of the total greenhouse gas emissions, thus making the Kyoto Protocol legally binding.

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6. CONCLUSIONS

At present nobody can confirm or deny the presence of a link between global warming and climate altering gases. It would be better for us all to adopt a “no-regret” policy.

We should behave wisely: even if the forecasts on climate change are not real, they are at least probable. What would it happen if they were real?

Scientific uncertainty should not be considered as a pretext for not taking actions.

The Third Millennium’s designer is planning heating and cooling systems to guarantee:

1. safety
2. functionality
3. the highest performance
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environment-friendly products

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